Eastern Princes Smashing Debut in Saga

    Jenny's new Saga army, Eastern Princes, charge into battle attempting to ride down Karen's Vikings

With a Saga tournament at Game Table Adventures the day before, we were not expecting a big turnout for our monthly Saga Sunday at Guardtower East. We had at least half a dozen who said they were unable to make it to the tourney but were interested in playing on our normal day, so we kept the day on the schedule. As it turned out, we had seven people show up.

    Jenny's Eastern Princes, bottom, face off against Karen's hearthguard-heavy Viking army

Jenny T was debuting her brand new army - Eastern Princes from Age of Crusades. Karen volunteered to take them on with her Vikings. Jenny and Karen decided to do the standard Clash of Warlords so that Jenny could focus on learning her new battle board without worrying about scenario conditions. Karen was showing off her brand new warlord figure that Dave E had painted up for her. It was a female warlord with a bird of prey perched on her upraised arm. Very cool figure conversion!

    Karen's female warlord figure was a conversion created and painted by Dave E

Although she stumbled on an advanced Saga ability or two, Jenny picked up using her new army very quickly. She ended up wiping out all of Karen's Vikings except for her warlord. She particularly liked Shooting ability called Crossfire which causes the opponent to reroll successful armor saves vs. shooting. That, and Ad Nauseum was another favorite of hers which gave one reroll of a melee miss for each successful hit. Jenny admitted her dice were hot in the beginning, but cooled off a bit towards the end. Jenny ended up winning the battle, 29-15, in a bloody scrum that saw lots of casualties. 

    Karen's warlord makes her last stand with her berserkers against Jenny's overwhelming numbers

On the table next to Jenny and Karen, Mike S squared off against his son, Jason. Mike was playing his Vikings while Jason had borrowed his Dad's Carthaginian army. They were playing Battle of Heroes (Chaos version). The battle saw them fighting across the width of the battlefield as each deployed on a side edge. Each was winning on the opponent's left. The Vikings eliminated the mounted right wing of the Carthaginians, while Jason whittled away at his dad's troops across the board. 

    Jenny and Karen square off in the foreground, while Mike and Jason battle in the background

Jason's elephant never got into the fray as the game ended early due to a die roll after 5 turns. Father and son counted up points and it turned out to be a 15-15 tie. Both said it was a good game, and Mike felt if it had gone one more turn he would have won. Jason would likely have disagreed, though!

    Jason S's Carthaginians, left, deploy for battle against Mike S's Viking warband

The third game of the day saw Lee P's Milites Christi waging battle against Dave E's Romans from the Age of Invasions book. I was watching and taking pictures, due to the odd number, so I paid close attention to this battle. I had just interviewed Lee for my Saga Ohio podcast (Episode 22) the weekend before. I wanted to see how his army performed in battle.

    Close up of Jason's Carthaginians and their shields

Things didn't start off well as he sent his 8-man mounted knight unit on a sweeping maneuver on the right wing against the legionary warrior unit that guarded Dave's left. Dave's dice were super-hot and the double strength hearthguard unit were repulsed by the lowly warrior unit. On his turn, Dave counter-attacked with Barratus and killed six of the eight knights, losing only three legionaries. Once again, Dave's dice were hot and things looked bleak for the Knights of St. John.

    The heart of the Roman battleline - two units of legionary warriors flank 8 hearthguard foot

Lee was able to pull the remaining two knights back behind the battleline so that they would continue to generate Saga dice. His crossbow tried to whittle away at the victorious legionaries, but couldn't seem to land hits consistently. As the Roman legion's battleline advanced, Lee had some serious ground to make up to be able to pull off a victory. In our interview, he admitted he likes to let opponent's come to him and use the counter-punch as his main blow.

    Towards the end of the battle, Knights of St. John sergeants charge Roman legionaries

Dave obliged and brought in his own right wing. Both his mounted hearthguard unit and a legionary warrior unit set up and charged in for successive attacks against a single 8-man warrior unit of Hospitaller sergeants. Lee had his battle board set up perfectly, closed ranks, and played Lions of War against the charging mounted legionaries. They drove them off, killing one and suffering no casualties. The Roman infantry were next, and they were also driven off at the cost of only one sergeant. Two legionaries fell, and it appeared the dice may be getting ready to swing in Lee's favor.

    The Knights of St. John's Grand Master even got into the battle, charging Roman Palatina elites

Lee's counter-punch proved as effective as he'd said in our interview, as the mounted troops were destroyed and the foot legionaries cut down to two figures remaining. Dave was relentless, though. He kept advancing, charging with fresh units of warriors or legionaries. The Hospitallers were a rock on defense, though. They survived the legion's blows, and their return blows whittled down the enemy's numbers. I'm not sure Dave realized that he was actually playing into Lee's strategy by charging him when he had Lion's of War and Beaucamp queued up.

    Another look at the father-son struggle between Jason and Mike, as their battlelines prepare to clash

The battle ground on, with both warlords getting involved, but the Knights of St. John continuing to hold the upper hand. In the end, Lee had not only made up the lost ground from turn 1, but triumphed fairly comfortably, 26-13. They had been playing Clash of Warlords, with the Grand Master of the Order winning the struggle despite his early losses.

Mike and Jenny offered to play another game so I could get one in, but none of the others could stay. So, I declined, and we called it a day early on. Hopefully, now that all the tournaments are done for awhile we can start to get our normal size turnouts at our game days. Our next game day is in Beavercreek, OH, at the Dragons Guildhall on March 20. Join us there for more Saga fun!